Sept. 12, 2016 travel to Cody, Wy visiting Little Bighorn National Monument and travel through the Bighorn National Forest

Today we have an early departure- 7:30 AM.

Our first stop will be the Little Bighorn National Monument- site of Custer's last stand.

https://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm

We had about an hour here. It was rainy so we went into the visitor center to hear the Ranger talk about the battle here. He was a good story teller and kept our attention for 45 mins. describing the battle. Afterwards we took a quick walk in the rain up to the monument to take a photo of it and some of the graveyard.

I wish it was not rainy and we had a little more time so we could have hiked down to the battlefield.

At 10:00 we boarded the bus for the ride up into the Bighorn National Forest for our lunch stop at the Elk View Inn.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/bighorn

It was snowing lightly and I thought it was December and not Sept. - so beautiful with  the snow covered trees in the forest.

Lunch was buffet style and very good. The lodge had a rustic interior with deer and bison heads on the wall.

 

After lunch back on the bus at 12:45.

We arrived in Cody at 2:45 and driven to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.

https://centerofthewest.org/

We were given about 2 hours here to explore while the bus driver took our bags to the hotel.

This was a very cool place- 5 museums under one roof. I explored the Plains Indian Exhibit, the Gun exhibit, Buffalo Bill Exhibit and Natural History Exhibit.

All were very interesting and well done with photos, displays and mounted animals.

I could have spent all day here and not seen everything completely.

We were picked up at 5:15 and dropped off at the Best Western.

We had dinner on our own so we found an Italian restaurant, Adriano's and made reservations at 7pm. We walked down the main street to the restaurant, admiring the historical buildings and beautiful mountains in the distance.

Dinner was very good and we walked a bit before heading back to hotel. We did see the Irma Hotel, named after Buffalo Bill's daughter, went inside and saw the historic dining room and adjoining public rooms.

Walked back to the hotel to turn in. Tomorrow we head for Yellowstone.

Sept. 11, 2016 depart Rapid City and go to Devil's Tower Monunument and then Sheridan, Wyoming

Today we left for the beginning of our journey to visit the National Parks.
We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then boarded the bus around 8 AM.

Sundance, WY

Our route will be a stop at the Wyoming Welcome Center in Sundance, Devil's Tower Monument, lunch in Gillette at the Walmart shopping center and then to the hotel in Sheridan - approx. 273 miles and 4hrs on the bus.

Once we left South Dakota and entered Wyoming we stopped in Sundance at the Visitor Center. It was really nice because it did have some refreshments for sale and it had a raft, covered wagon and horse that we could sit in or on and have our photos taken. We had about 25 mins here.

on the side of the road

Outside we could see open land and few buildings and little traffic on the road.

Back on the bus to Devil's Tower Monument and got there at 11:35 am.

Tower in back on right

We saw some fields on either side of the road with lots of prairie dogs- very cute critters.

Here we were given an hour to take the hike around the Tower or just walk around.

We opted to take the hike around the tower which took about 45 mins. and the trail was good and the weather mild and it was nice to be outdoors.

Quick stop at the gift shop and then back on the bus at 12:45PM heading to Gillette for lunch on our own at the Walmart shopping center (called that because it was the major store there).

We went to Perkin's for lunch and since we had some time headed to Walmart to buy snacks for the next few days.

Left at 3:05 and arrived in Sheridan at our hotel at 4:50.

We were told to meet at the bus at 5:45 for the short drive to the restaurant for dinner.

Dinner was at the Open Range Hotel restaurant where we were seated in a private room. Average quality dinner- salad, beef brisket, vegetables, mashed potatoes, roll and dessert and drinks.

Back on bus to hotel.

This Best Western had a nice exterior and had buildings on both sides of the street but the interior of the room was painted a dark color making the room gloomy and the room size was small. Ok for one night.

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Sept. 10, 2016 Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial

Today we had a group breakfast where we met our fellow travelers and the tour director, Marlene. She went over the tour itinerary and rules/expectations about traveling in a group for the next 17 days.

We had an hour break and got on the bus at 9am for the visit to Crazy Horse Memorial. It was abut a 30 min. drive.

Marlene recommended we see the welcome video and then take the school bus out close to the mountain so we could see Crazy Horse's face up close.
We followed her recommendations and were able to take photos of the mountain where the school bus stopped.

Back at the visitors center we looked at the Indian handcrafts and historical items and at 3pm boarded the bus  for the ride back to the hotel.

At 6:30pm we all met for a welcome dinner where we enjoyed a delicious dinner and had a chance to get to know our fellow travellers.

We retired early because we check out tomorrow for the trip to Sheridan Wy. We leave at 7:45 am.

Sept. 9, 2016 Custer State Park and Rapid City

Today the plan was to tour Custer State Park to view wildlife. The website states that visitors would see wild life and enjoy the beauty of the park.
We left around 9:15 am and arrive at the park around 10:15 at the new visitor center. We saw a short movie about the park, wild life and outdoor activities.

We then got in the car driving on the wilderness loop and after a short drive we saw our first large group of bison. We watched them for a bit and took some photos and then started driving again. In 10 mins we saw a bunch of cars on a side road and saw several bison coming at our car and walked right by us. We took some great photos of the leader and some of the followers. We drove up closer to the other cars and saw another small group of bison and watched them and took more photos.

This is one of several bison that walked right by our car.

We started to go back down to the main road when Sophia spotted a pronghorn antelope in the field. It blended in so well I could not see it. Later when we zoomed in on the photos Sophia took we could see the antelope resting in the grass .

We then headed to the Blue Bell Lodge for lunch. After a 10 min. d

rive we arrived at the lodge.
It was a log cabin and had several rooms and a bar and the walls were decorated with deer heads and a bison head in the lobby.

We had a good lunch and then continued on the wild life loop that old take us back to the road we came in on.
On the way we saw some cars stooped to see the wild donkeys that would come up to the car windows begging for treats like apples and carrots. Very cool to see them and the ones in the meadow.

We then drove on to the exit and headed back to Rapid City.
After a rest we walked around  Memorial Park which had an exhibit on the Berlin Wall and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

We went into the historic downtown and walked around looking at the bronze sculptures of past Presidents and then went to the Firehouse for dinner.

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel.

Sept. 8, 2061 Start of our bus tour of 6 Western National Parks

We signed up for an organized bus tour of 6 Western National parks last Feb. The tour sounded good as it covered parks we always wanted to visit, some stays  of several nights at certain cities so we could spend time in some parks and would be a  slow pace.

Since the tour originates in Rapid City,we had to fly there today. We went one day early so we could go to Custer State park tomorrow.

The tour company arranged for us to fly UA and even though we upgraded to premium economy, the flight was not too good- crammed seats side by side; smallest bathroom I ever used and surly employees at the check in kiosks. Their checkin proceedure was terrible compared to Southwest, British Air, Turkish Air and Virgin Air. (Airlines we usually use).
No onboard entertainment unless you bring a tablet or smartphone and do not count on any healthy snacks to buy.

Landed in Rapid City on time and got our rental car and went to hotel.

Went to downtown historical district to sightsee and have dinner. Each street corner had a statue of president and a museum about presidents and the statues.
Will write more about that tomorrow- plan is to visit downtown again before dinner.